Hi family! I will be starting to blog only once a month instead of once a week. This week I will be writing about the Wideman ancestors. They are related to us by grandmother's (Ethel Ferguson Jones) father William Ferguson. William Ferguson's mother Delia Wideman Ferguson is related to the Wideman's. It was hard to find their slaveowners, but I believe they started as slaves in South Carolina around 1780. I was able to find Delia, my great great grandmother's mother Patsy on the 1870 census in Garden Valley, Smith county, Texas. Patsy lived near Delia who was in Garden Valley according to census in 1870. Garden Valley is near Tyler, Texas. It states on the 1870 census that Patsy is from Alabama. The research of most white Wideman slave owners show they were from North Carolina and South Carolina. I was able to verify that Patsy is Delia's mother with the Ancestry DNA match with a person who also had Amanda Wideman, Delia's sister on his family tree. Possibly Delia's grandparents were in South Carolina around 1780 because the African American Palmer's and Wideman's are both on the census for Abbeville, South Carolina in 1870. The 1870 census gave Patsy's (Delia's mother) last name as Wideman. It gives Amanda (Patsy's daughter) last name as Palmer. The DNA match and census are attached.

There were some white Wideman slave owners also in North Carolina. Leonard Wideman, slaveowner was born in Granville, North Carolina. He had a plantation called "Oak Grove" and was killed in 1831 by laves in an uprsing. Leonard Wideman, Jr. born in 1796, Abbeville, South Carolina died Dec. 10, 1847. He was murdered by slaves in an uprising. On Jan. 18th they sold the personal property: 109 Negroes, etc. Te slaves of James Watson killed him. Leonard Wideman's son Henry Wideman owned land in Georgia. He lived in Troup Couty, Georgia. Willaim Whitman/Wideman on the 1960 census in Chambers County, Alabama had slaves. That is where Delia and Madison were and had children starting in 1855 but the slave owner for them was Alfred Ferguson. So the Wideman slaves were possibly brought to Alabama from South Carolina or North Carolina and some were sold at that time. I had an Ancestry DNA match that shows I am related to the Middlestons who married a Wideman. They were both in South and died in South Carolina. James Middleton married Mary Louvenia Wideman. Mary was born in 1883. Her parents are Dorsey Wideman (born in 1865) and Janie Plummer (born in 1867) both born in South Carolina. Dorsey's parents are James Wideman (born in 1838) and Georgia Wells (born in 1842) in Edgefield, South Carolina. I have attached it. There is a Jacob Wideman on the 1870 census living close to Delia and he may be her brother. It states he was born in Alabama like Delia. Deeds of 1872 show that he bought 59 acres of land and paid in 3 equal payments of $149.52 that would total $448.00. So, it appears that our roots go very far! South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama and Texas.